There is trouble in the Kring van Hoofdredacteuren, the national association of news media in Dutch higher education. One board member has resigned, and two other board members will be boycotting the annual Kring conference in Groningen on 13 April. The cause of the trouble: Laurens Buijs, a researcher at the University of Amsterdam and an anti-woke activist, will be on a conference panel discussion on wokeness and cancel culture. He was initially recommended for the panel by the Kring board after the publication of his opinion piece in Folia, in which he argued that wokeness poses a threat to academic freedom, but he appears to have become radicalised since then. For example, he posted a blog about the reptilian conspiracy theory and recently called on the trans community to condemn the mass shooting by a trans person at a Nashville primary school, calling it “radicalisation within [their] own ranks”. Oddly enough, he also published an opinion piece on science and gender in NRC in mid-March, written in a calm tone, in which his extremist views barely showed through.
To go or not to go
The big question at the office this week was what Observant should do. To go or not to go? The hotel had long been booked, the trip already arranged – but everything could easily be cancelled, of course. Arguments flew back and forth: should the conference really give a platform to someone who regularly defends conspiracy theorists and likes to rant about women and transgender people on Twitter? Should we, as Kring members and conference participants, really contribute to that? And: is there even a point in having a discussion with someone who would go so far as to support a 9/11 and moon-landing denier?
Facts
Let’s first get our facts straight, we decided. Our colleague CF compiled a list of articles and statements by Buijs for us to read, so we would know what we were talking about. I myself contacted Rob Siebelink, the editor-in-chief of UKrant (the University of Groningen newspaper) and one of the conference organisers. “It’s true that the man has become radicalised over the past months”, he said. “But I believe in academic debate. I’m not a moral crusader, but a journalist. The whole room will be full of journalists. We are all used to asking critical questions, and to letting people speak even if we totally disagree with them. Why would we cancel this if we want to have a discussion on wokeness and cancel culture in academia? It would make no sense at all. If anything, the controversy emphasises the need for that discussion.” And, finally, “We have an excellent moderator. No one will be spewing filth.”
Showing up
I felt quite reassured. Also, why would we boycott the conference if the other two panellists – Charlotte Wekker, diversity officer at Hanze University of Applied Sciences Groningen, and Sahar Meradji, creator of the PowNed series Ik woke van jou – are still planning to show up, enter into a discussion with this man, and express a very different view?
It was the final push we needed. And besides, we hate cancelling plans. We’ll be going to the conference.
Latest news
But… this editorial was already at the translator’s and on its way to the printer when the latest news arrived. Charlotte Wekker has pulled out of the panel; she doesn’t want to be a pawn in the Kring’s political game. It proved impossible to find a replacement for her at such short notice. Buijs was called off, as the conference organisers felt it wouldn’t be a balanced panel without Wekker. Instead, there’ll be a discussion of the issues within the Kring.
One thing is for sure – it won’t be a boring conference.